Results tagged “landmark”

Whenever there's a story about the site of the World's Fair you can be certain the words neglected and/or deteriorated will be used. Last year the city was criticized for not better preserving the 130' x 166' terrazzo replica of a Texaco New York State road map at the New York State Pavilion. The winter weather dislodged and even cracked panels after a decision not to protect it was made.

Following the 40th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's death (which was yesterday), a fan of the author is speaking out again about the lack of recognition the beat gets in his one-time home borough of Queens.

There has been talk in the past of saving the Sylvan Court mews, with some questioning why the Landmarks Preservation Commission has ignored them, when all other historic mews districts are preserved and landmarked in the city. Located on 121st Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, one neighborhood blogger notes that "mews are typically former 19th century stable yards that end abruptly in an alley-like layout."

The landmark Corn Exchange Bank Building on 125th Street in Harlem used to be a picturesque structure, but now it's one of the most visible eyesores in the neighborhood. The building, "an 1883-84 Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival structure," according to the Times, will soon lose its top two floors; a decision recently made by the Department of Buildings who found it unsafe. A "fire caused by homeless folk" already aided in the roof collapsing, and there are trees growing inside, according to one neighborhood blogger.

The 17-century Bowne house in Flushing, Queens is finally getting restored after ownership was transferred to the city; news that comes with much relief to Landmark nerds and historians (and anyone who hates to see beautiful old structures disintegrate in front of their very eyes). With $5 million from the city, state and private groups, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe announced the plan to restore it is moving "full speed ahead," according to the Daily News.

Yesterday the Landmarks Preservation Commission declared some new places worth saving. First up is the Prospect Heights Historic District, which includes 850 historic buildings, including single-family brownstones, commercial buildings and more dating back to the 1850s. Curbed reports that "There were also three individual landmarks designated: 94 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan, Mount Olive Fire Baptized Holiness Church at 304 West 122nd Street in Harlem and the John Peirce Residence at 11 East 51st Street in Midtown." Meanwhile, the much talked about South Village Historic District is scheduled to be discussed at a later date. Related: Queens Crap looks at the city's university/college presidents that live in landmarked areas (the president of Brooklyn College resides in a 1918 neoclassical home in the Prospect Heights historic district).

       

What is it about dilapidated hospitals that are make them so beautiful? Today the Kingston Lounge's Richard Nickel, Jr. posted photos from a trip to one within the Fort Totten landmark district near Bayside, Queens. A little history lesson: "Built in 1864, the year in which the primary purpose of the Fort shifted from defense of the mouth of the East River to casualty support and hospital care, the facility served the Army in various capacities until 1974, when it was emptied and abandoned. Sometime before 1920 a cafeteria annex was added to the rear of the structure; at some point prior to abandonment, the hospital appears to have been repurposed for office and administrative use, and the basement for storage."

Back in April there were some updates on the preservation efforts of the 151-year-old smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island, and word is that, as of yesterday, it's been saved from total destruction. However, NY1 reports that Trust for Public Land's Andy Stone "said the restoration process is painstaking and delicate, since every piece that fell down had to catalogued, and there are hundreds of pieces still waiting to be reattached." amNewYork also reports on the city’s only landmarked ruin, noting that aside from those finishing touches, it has "finished a $4.5 million stabilization after a portion collapsed in December 2007." Now that the structure is sturdy once again, ground was broken yesterday for the construction of Southpoint Park, which will encompass both the ruins and the Strecker Lab and will include "two large lawns, a scenic overlook and gardens along the southernmost part of the island." Look forward to frolicking there around Fall 2010.

There's good news for the famously decaying Windermere, a complex of three 1881 apartment buildings in Hell's Kitchen that was landmarked in 2005. The Japanese owner of the structure, Masako Yamagata, has finally agreed to a settlement with seven tenants who had to be evacuated in 2007 because of the extreme decay. They'll collectively share $2.6 million in exchange for relinquishing claims on their apartments, and Yamagata has also agreed to pay $1.1 million in civil penalties to the city for failing to maintain the building. A judge had issued a court order last year requiring Yamagata to repair the landmark, but the city had been unable to enforce it because he was in Japan. Once a buyer expressed serious interest in purchasing the Windermere, Yamagata finally settled so he could unload it for an undisclosed sum. The buyer has promised make all necessary repairs to the complex, which was popular with single working women and artists at the turn of the 20th century. When it opened, it was known for its technological marvels like the hydraulic elevator and telephone.

It's been over two years since the Landmarks Preservation Commission received a proposal for the creation of a new South Village Historic District, and preservationists are frustrated with the alterations made to the historic landscape they've been trying to save. The NY Times reports that "owners of buildings in the area began filing for permits to alter or demolish their properties." From townhouses circa 1835 to a strip of 1861 houses that included Le Figaro Cafe, facades are being destroyed and buildings are being gutted. There may be some progress now, however, as the LPC is holding a community meeting tonight "to discuss the designation of the district: a swath of the city extending south from Washington Square Park and West Fourth Street to Broome Street, and bordered by La Guardia Place to the east, and Seventh Avenue South to the west." Are the recent efforts too little, too late? Will the landmarking process move forward? Stay tuned! But as Curbed points out, keep in mind that even the designation goes through, "a historic district does not mean there won't be casualties."

The massive Pabst Blue Ribbon bottle in New Jersey, a deteriorating symbol of Hipstericana, has been moved to a junkyard just off the New Jersey Turnpike. The 60-foot-high bottle was chopped into about six pieces after standing tall and proud for over 70 years atop the brewery off the Garden State Parkway. While the "managers at recycling company, which demolished the defunct Pabst brewery in Newark's West Ward for redevelopment, didn't want to talk about the dislocated landmark they now own," there are plenty of folks making offers on the pieces. One man, a New Jersey Institute of Technology professor and curator of the school's gallery, offered $500 for the cap and planned on somehow making it into a dining room table! However, it was estimated it would cost around $150K to move and install elsewhere—of course, that quote may have also been based on the amount they estimate they'll get from the steel and copper scrap metal. Meanwhile, isn't there some giant John Deere trucker hat statue out there we can put this thing next to?

Back in 2007, at a youthful 151-years-old, the eerie smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island suffered a major collapse on the north facade. The NY Times checks in now, as a team of engineers, architects, masons and more have swooped in to save the landmark, which was designed by James Renwick Jr., the architect of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Take a look at the progress on the guided video tour, where they mention the future fixed-up structure could house performances and a cafe. Too bad it won't be in time for the Roosevelt Live concert series.

Adolfo Carrión Jr., the Bronx borough president who was recently appointed Urban Policy Director in the Obama administration, is one of many who are urging the Landmarks Preservation Commission to declare that Rincón Criollo and other South Bronx casitas are city landmarks.

Earlier this month, Lost City observed the removal of the iconic sign for the Upper West Side's P&G Cafe; despite outcry from the regulars, the 66-year-old watering hole had been denied a lease renewal by the landlord. So fourth-generation owner Steve Chahalis relocated to a bigger space a few blocks away, and took the sign down when he left. But because it was a city landmark, many wondered whether it was even legal to remove the sign. Today a spokeswoman for the Landmarks Preservation Commission tells City Room that "a warning letter was sent to the owner explaining that a permit was required." But Chahalis's lawyer says they never received any letter, and now the sign is no longer functional because the fragile electrical connections and metal underpinning "were rotted out from decades of water on the exterior." Chahalis says he'll try to incorporate some "surviving neon-tubing remnants" into a new sign, but the old one's disappearance makes the city's Landmarks Commission look pretty toothless.

    

Designated a landmark in 1979, the 2,800-seat Beacon Theatre has undergone a $16 million restoration, and earlier today the final look of their 7-month-long project was unveiled. Thanks to the work of thousands, the venue "is back to its original 1929 grandeur, fulfilling the commitment the company made to New York when it acquired the theatre in November, 2006." A full list of restorations can be found after the jump, and the NY Times has a cute story about an old gold-painted coffee tin discovered during the facelift and found to be the fixture supporting "the principal ornament at the tip of the 900-pound chandelier in the rotunda" (pictured here).

The landmarking continues, with the latest designation being a group of row houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant. 1010Wins reports that "a cluster of three dozen 19th-century row houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn has been designated as New York City's latest historic district." The announcement came after the LPC voted on the Alice and Agate Courts, which Commission Chairman Robert Tierney called "charming." A little less quaint, but also approved today were One Chase Manhattan Plaza and the Consolidated Edison Building near Union Square.

One of NYC's most famous buildings may be turned into a hotel: According to the Daily News, Italian real estate group Sorgente "has bought just over 50% of the iconic structure and plans to keep buying more." It's believe their portion of the building is worth $190 million.

The Commission also held public hearings to discuss future designations, which include the Lamartine Place Historic District in Chelsea that consists of a dozen houses built between 1846 and 1847 that were associated with the Underground Railroad and the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863. And the Fillmore Place Historic District in Williamsburg is still on the table for a designation as well.

Last summer the Hubbard House, one of the last standing Dutch farmhouses in the city, appealed for designation once again to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Now Brownstoner reports that tomorrow the LPC will meet, and along with the Hubbard House they'll "take the formal step of voting to calendar the Fillmore Historic District, a one block section on the North Side of Wiliamsburg between Driggs Avenue and Roebling Street. The street is notable because it was built as part of a middle-class housing plan and exhibits a strong architectural cohesiveness. It also gets a shout-out in Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer." (More recently, Fillmore is where one of the machete attacks took place!) Stay tuned for more on the fate of the could-be landmarks, history buffs.

The plan to turn the disused Domino Sugar Refinery site in South Williamsburg into a housing complex with nine residential towers, 2,200 apartments and 30,000 square feet of retail space is moving forward despite the economic downturn, optomistic developer Michael Lappin insists. You'll recall how back in June the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved revised plans for the $1.2 billion development, which promised to preserve the site's iconic sign. Of course, that was before everything went up in flames.

The Times concludes its epic, four-part think piece on the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission today. Yesterday, Robin Pogrebin's series looked into why many churches eschew landmark status (cheaper to demolish), Friday was about how sneaky developers send in the demolition crews mere days before the LPC holds their hearing, and last Wednesday's piece noted the fun fact that LPC chairman Robert Tierney has no background in architecture, planning or historic preservation. Today's coda considers the "delicate dance" between preservationists and developers. DUMBO developer Jed Walentas derides landmarking as "one of the best tools that anti-development people have." But his feisty dance partner, Andrew S. Dolkart at Columbia University, argues, "A relatively tiny proportion of New York land is landmarked. It’s hardly an obstacle to economic growth in the city."

A Manhattan Supreme Court Justice has delivered another defeat to a developer's long-delayed plan to turn a century-old school in the East Village into a massive dormitory. You may recall the heated controversy surrounding developer Gregg Singer's plans to build a 19-story university dorm where a five-story school on East 9th Street stands—the school, finished in 1906 and abandoned by the Department of Education in the '70s, had been revived as the vibrant Charas community arts center.

The NY Post reports on the Landmarks Preservation Commission pushing for the approval of over 1,000 historic designations while Bloomberg is still in office. "The number of proposed designations includes a planned new historic district in Prospect Heights with 860 of the buildings," and there are also buildings and homes in Chelsea, Ridgewood and Bed-Stuy (Alice and Agate Courts) seeking a longer lease on life. Bloomberg has 18 months left, but to put the 1K number in perspective -- last year only 369 buildings were approved (however, during Giuliani's reign only around 200 a year were approved). Curbed wonders "which neighborhoods or buildings don't make the cut before the clock runs out."

One of the last Dutch farmhouses in the city, the Hubbard House, currently stands in at 2138 McDonald Ave in Brooklyn, but could soon be a thing of the past if it follows in the footsteps of the farmhouses before it. The Brooklyn Eagle reports that the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) will meet next Tuesday to hear out owner John Antonides's case, one that he has been voicing for the past 10 years.

A judge ordered that the second-oldest apartment building in New York City must be repaired by its owners. The Windermere, at West 57th Street and Ninth Avenue, has been the scene of of landlord and tenant struggles and evacuations as the fire department has found its conditions unsafe.

Wall Street tycoon Dr. Mitchell Blutt is at the center of a Manhattan mansion controversy: He purchased two town houses east of his home on East 90th Street between Park and Madison in hopes of combining them into one giant abode.

Earlier there was news of a luxury condo leveling a church and digging up graves, now word is in that the South Williamsburg power plant on Kent Avenue will meet the same fate. The Brooklyn Paper reports that Con Edison has finally admitted its plan to demolish the defunct power plant and neighborhood landmark.

Neighbors of the abandoned Kent Avenue power plant knew something was up back in March, when workers started tearing holes into the 102-year-old red brick building, which has been inactive since the late 1990s.

Earlier this week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously agreed to allow the main branch of the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street to inscribe the name of a prominent donor, financier Stephen A. Schwarzman, multiple times on the library facade. The fabulously wealthy son of a grocer and co-founder of the Blackstone Group will have his name inscribed five times on the library’s façade as a shout-out for his $100 million unconditional gift to the NYPL.

Later today, the city will discuss whether the I.M. Pei-designed Silver Towers should be landmarked. The Observer reported that NYU announced its support today, a reversal from an earlier position over three years ago.